"I can only imagine what the rest of the program has in store for us."

Dom Allen '20 | Software Engineering Major | Computer Science Minor | Entrepreneurship and Marketing

Hometown | Syracuse, NY

I applied to LSV for many reasons, but perhaps the most compelling was the hope of learning what Silicon Valley and the entrepreneurs who reside here are truly like. Silicon Valley and its inhabitants have a unique stereotype, but I learned today that is not true.

Today we traveled to the VMware facility and spoke with 3 entrepreneurs curated by our day lead, Tom Gillis. This group was incredibly intellectually diverse and all gave unique insights. In fact, the first person we spoke to holds a C-level position at a multi-hundred million dollar company but did not graduate high school. His journey, which includes dropping out of high school, serving in the Delta Force, getting into college without a diploma, then moving to Silicon Valley and scaling a brand new startup to a massive acquisition and beyond, is both incredible and inspiring. Our other speakers also have unique journeys and shared valuable insight, which made for an exhilarating day from start to finish. The first full day of LSV definitely delivered on my hope to learn what Silicon Valley is really like, and I can only imagine what the rest of the program has in store for us.